Beginning Again
by Roselie Parry
Summary: After Charlie Discovers Drawings Shannon Made Of Boone That Couldn't Have Be Drawn Before His Death, Everyone Starts Looking For Boone After His Grave Turns Out To Be Empty. Will They Be Able To Find Him, & If They Do, What Will He Be Like Now?
1. Charlie's Discovery

Chapter One: Charlie's Discovery

"Hey everyone! Come see what I found."

Charlie Pace's Australian accented voice echoed slightly across the beach as he shuffled out of the jungle from the direction of the tents.

Slowly half the camp walked over, Jack in the lead, retying the machete to his belt as they group half circled around the ex musician.

"What is it Charlie?" asked Jack as Charlie handed over pieces of slightly worn, crumpled paper that looked like it'd seen better days.

"Well, I was going through Shannon's things, you know, looking for anything that might be useful to someone else," he paused as Sayid glared, obviously not liking the idea of him digging through his deceased girlfriends belongings, before a look from Jack told him to continue, "and I found these drawings…" he smiled slightly tapping the papers in jacks hands, "they're of Boone."

All the whispering stopped at the mention of the dead plane crash survivors name, all remembering when Locke had carried him in over his shoulders, Boone's right leg broken, ribs half crushed and his face a mask of blood.

Jack continued to go through the sketches.

"Wait…Go back," Kate who was standing slightly behind Jack, made a hand motion and Jack flipped back to the previous sketch, "I don't remember that scar being there," stated Kate, pointing with her pinkie finger to the slightly scar Shannon had drawn in above her step-brothers left eye-brow.

"That's because he didn't have one…" replied Jack flipping through the last of the sketches before pulling out a certain drawing and putting it on the top of the pile.

Everyone seemed to move closer, some looking over other peoples shoulders to get a better look at the picture Jack and Kate were now looking at.

It was Boone standing in the mouth of a cave, back against the rough surface, faced turned towards them smiling, arms folded… and the only thing besides the scar that they could see that was different…

Kate swallowed, mouth opening and closing right before Jack spoke.

"His right leg's been amputated… at the knee."

"But that's not possible, you never removed his leg, he didn't let you… Besides, that would mean she drew this _after_ Boone died…And that's not…" Kate trailed off, looking up at Jack seeming shocked.

"Possible… I know, I think we should go to where we buried Boone…" Jack started slowly looking around at everyone, "to make sure he's still there…because if he's not…"

"It would mean," this time it was Sayid who spoke, all heads turning towards him as he pulled curly black hair into a sloppy bun, "he wasn't dead after all…and we buried him alive."

"He was _dead, _both me and Jack checked for his pulse and he didn't have one." Sun cut in moving forward followed by her husband Jin.

"Maybe his heart beat was just faint and slow," Sayid replied turning his attention to the Korean couple.

"He wasn't breathing…He was…"

"Alright! that's enough." Jack cut Sun off mid-sentence as he handed the drawings back to Charlie and turned to face everyone, "We're gonna go to the grave site, to find out the truth, and settle this… I want five guys to grab shovels."

Everyone rushed around to get shovels before following Jack and Kate up to the grave site, the next ten minutes being spent as the five men who Jack told to dig, dug into the sandy soil.

"There ain't no body here." Sawyer said straightening up and running a hand through his shaggy dirty blond hair before leaning on his shovel as everyone slowly stopped digging to nod in agreement, "we woulda found him by now."

Jack turned to look out into the jungle, "that means, either Boone's alive, and Shannon was looking after him after all this time…" Jack paused as everyone began to murmur," or The Others took the body."

"Alright everyone!" Kate hollered drawing everyone's attention to her, "lets get search party's going, search everywhere you can get too, every ravine, every cave, let's find him…"

"And lets bring him home." Jack finished as he, Kate, Charlie, Sayid and Sawyer headed off into the jungle, the sounds of the other survivors getting muted out as the jungle closed up behind them and they headed off towards the area where the plane fell and Boone received his thought-to-be-fatal wounds.

Ok…so as you should notice I have an over active imagination so I write a lot of stories at once, mainly because I get ideas by seeing the show/movie/book and have to write it out… hope you enjoy *smile*


	2. The Missing 45

Chapter 2: The Cave

"How long have we been searching?… It feels like it's been _days._"

The five had been trekking through what felt like miles and miles of jungle and Charlie had started to slow and lag behind a good twenty feet.

"We've only been walkin' for an hour rock-star." replied Sawyer sounding annoyed as he glanced back at the blonde before turning back and stepping up and over a fallen tree, "and hurry the hell up before Jack and the others leave us behind."

Charlie muttered and jogged up to the rest of the group, choosing to walk around the tree instead of over it, "maybe we should try another direction, I mean, we're bound to hit the other beach soon right?"

"We'll keep with this path for now," replied Jack, "there are caves about 10 minutes from here, me and Locke found them shortly after we crashed here." Jack used his machete to point out a new direction and the group turned, Sayid taking the lead.

Everyone was silent, the only sounds being birds and slight rustling as the breeze swept through the tree tops.

"What are we going to do when we find him?" Kate said finally, keeping her attention mainly on the ground to be sure she didn't trip over anything, "_if _we find him," she added, "he might not want anything to do with us…he might be fine on his own."

"He's missin' a _leg _Freckles." stated Sawyer turning his head to look at her.

"Sawyers right Kate," Jack glanced around then went back to staring ahead, "even if he doesn't want anything to do with us…we're still taking him back to camp. I highly doubt he's any good at fending for himself anyways, Shannon was probably bringing food for him from camp."

Sayid nodded, "I saw her leave camp many times before with baskets of food, she told me she liked to eat by herself sometimes." he paused to hold a branch back so everyone could get through without getting hit, "I now realize she must have been going to meet him."

Again everyone was silent.

Jack slowed and crouched slightly, holding onto a vine as he made his way down a rather steep hill, the rest of the group following behind him, Charlie once again bringing up the rear.

Once everyone had gathered at the bottom, Jack cast a glance around before turning to face them, "now there are four caves, and five of us, that should make it easier, Sawyer and Charlie, you take the cave to the left," Jack pointed, "Sayid you take the once near the jungle edge, Kate, you take the one right ahead," he pointed again.

They broke off to search the caves, all returning shortly after except Jack.

"Where's Jack?" asked Kate looking around frowning slightly.

"You think he found Boone?" Charlie instantly headed towards the direction Jack had gone off to but Sayid grabbed his arm stopping him in mid step, causing him to stumble and almost face plant into the soil.

"Sayid! Why the hell did you do that! I could've fallen on my face and snapped my neck!" Charlie protested as he pulled away and half glared at the older man.

"Oh stop over exaggerating," snorted Sawyer before smirking slightly, "'sides I think it woulda been kinda funny."

Charlie turned his head to glare at Sawyer.

"We're being watched." Kate finally spoke looking around, brown hair escaping her ponytail and clinging to her forehead from sweat.

Sawyer and Charlie stopped bickering and fell silent, "from where?" Charlie asked after a moment of silence, eyes darting.

"There," Sayid pointed to a denser section of jungle just as branches snapped and a skinny dirt smeared arm merged from the shadows to wrap around the closest tree trunk, the other arm raised at them holding a black 45.

"So that's where that gun ran off too," muttered Sawyer under his breath as he copied everyone's movement of raising their hands to show that they meant the guns wielder no harm.

The four stood still and silent, hands raised, as they watched Boone Carlyle hopple his worn out, dirt smeared body out of the shadows, still clinging to the tree for balance as the finger on his right hand twitched over the trigger of the gun, a permanent glare (and Sayid noticed the carefully hidden look of fear) etched on his face as he prepared to pull the trigger.


	3. The Journey Home

Everyone stood silently, hands raised as Boone aimed the gun at them one at a time, finger still twitching over the trigger, the 45 shaking slightly as his hand trembled.

"Easy kiddo," Sawyer said quietly, his eyes flickered from the gun to Boone and back again, "don't want no accidents now."

Boone's eyes locked on him and the gun followed, "shuddup." his voice was raspy and dry, words slightly slurred like he had run out of the habit of using it along time ago.

"Boone... sweetie," Kate started keeping her voice as steady and soft as possible, drawing Boone's attention from Sawyer to herself. "Put the gun down...we're not gonna hurt you, we're your friends remember?

Right before anyone could react Boone was yanked back into the bushes, the gun going off wildly with a bang, nearly taking off Sawyer's ear.

Everyone hit the ground, arms over their heads just in case anymore bullets were fired, the sound of people wrestling in the bushes causing near by birds to scatter.

Sayid got up first, hurrying over to where the gun lay on the ground and where Jack lay flat on his back, Boone on top of him, struggling to get free as Jack, who now sported a bloody nose, kept his arms pinned by his sides, Boone's head thrashing from side to side, remaining leg kicking out wildly as he fought to free himself, letting out the occasional shout.

Finally after what felt like forever and everyone else had walked over, Boone stopped struggling, his head lolling back against Jacks shoulder, his breath coming out in gasped wheezes, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.

Sawyer picked up the gun off the ground and quickly unloaded it, putting the rounds in his pocket and tucking the empty gun in his belt.

Everyone was silent, watching Jack and Boone who lay back to chest on the ground, breathing hard. Finally Jack released Boone who slide off him sideways and lay on his side coughing and gasping.

Sayid walked forward and helped Jack sit up, "are you alright Jack?" his eyes flickered from where Boone lay coughing then back to Jack who sat carefully inspecting his nose.

"I'm fine," Jack nodded before turning his attention to Boone, "Boone..."

The younger mans eyes stayed staring straight ahead.

Jack sighed and rolled him onto his back, "Boone... look at me," Boone's eyes flickered to him, "we're gonna take you back to camp, we're gonna get you cleaned up and give you something to eat...alright?"

Boone licked his lips at the mention of food and Jack smiled slightly, "lets get you to your...foot."

Sawyer stepped forward silently and helped Jack pull Boone up, quickly putting the younger mans arm around his shoulders to keep him steady.

"We're gonna have to go the long way back to camp Doc, the kid ain't gonna make it up that slope," stated Sawyer as they started walking, in Boone's case hopping, back the way they came towards the incline.

"Sawyers right Jack," agreed Charlie, holding a branch back as Sawyer and Boone went by, "It's way too steep."

Jack let out a sigh but nodded, quickly changing direction and choosing a different route, "this way will take an extra hour at least...but there's not any major hills or slopes to deal with."

Boone whined and stopped, clutching onto Sawyers shirt when he started to fall forward, caught when both Kate and Sawyer grabbed for him.

"Don't worry kiddo," Sawyer laughed slightly, him and Kate standing on either side of Boone to help him balance better, "we'll take lots of breaks so you don't tire yourself out as fast."

Boone looked at him, then at Kate who smiled at him reassuringly, "he's right sweetheart, whenever you need to stop just tell us and we will."

"We need to get moving before it starts getting dark, it'll be harder to see where we're walking in the darkness and since we don't have a lot of ammo, it'll be bad if we run into any bears." Jack turned and started walking, occasionally glancing around or back at the rest of the group, then to Sayid who was walking a few meters away from everyone, keeping an eye out for wild boars.

"What I wanna know," started Charlie, carefully watching where he walked, "is how did Boone survive on his own for so long? I mean, hes only got one leg."

"Sha-nun." Boone spoke slowly, obviously trying his best to talk clearly, clinging to both Sawyer and Kate's shirts as they walked forward.

"But... what about after Shannon stopped showing up though, how'd you cope?" Charlie continued stumbling slightly over a half hidden tree root.

Kate and Sawyer carefully lifted Boone over the root Charlie had exposed, making sure he had a good footing before continuing.

"Dunno...down't 'memer much" answered Boone looking around at the jungle and up at the sky as he hopped along, arms around Sawyers and Kate's shoulders, "Shannon juzz went poof," he finished, moving his hands in a 'poof" motion as he talked.

Everyone was silent, they weren't sure if Boone knew that his sister was dead, and they sure didn't want to bring it up until they had at least made it back to camp.

The trip back to camp seemed to take even longer then it should have, and the frequent stops for Boone to rest only added to everyone's unease. Jack knew they were only thirty minutes from camp but they had had to stop again for Boone to rest and have a drink.

"Charlie," Jack said has he put the water bottle back in Kate's backpack and looked up to see the ex-rocker looking at him. "I want you to run ahead back to camp, go to my tent and get supplies ready for when we get back, and get some food from Rose, if she asks why tell her...but only her, got it?"

"Yeah, got it," Charlie nodded quickly and hurried off, vanishing into the tree's, his footsteps soon disappearing.

They rested for a few more minutes, Boone resting his head on Kate's shoulder, Kate absently running her fingers through his mussed hair.

"Let's get moving, the sooner we get back the better." Jack helped Kate get Boone up then Sawyer walked over to re-assume his position of Boone-balancer.

Making sure Sayid was playing guard behind the group, Jack started walking.

It was going to be a long half hour.


End file.
